The Kensington

History

Gameshow

!!!!!!

The Rules:

• Each factory team guesses the answer to each question

• Correct answers to each question earn a point.• The team with the most points at the end of

the game wins.• Each member of the winning team gets the

weekly wage of a child worker from 1900.

Question 1:

Did people eat Cereal for Breakfast in 1900?

Yes or No?

Yes!

Here’s a picture of an early add from 1900 for Pettijohn’s Breakfast Food:

Question 2:

What was the favorite popular sport at the turn of the 2oth century?

A: BaseballB: Football

C: Cage FightingD: Basketball

A-BaseballThe first world series was played in Pittsburg - 1903

Pittsburg vs. Boston

A Sports Side Note:

• In 1900, Football was popular but only in some ivy league colleges. The NFL wasn’t formed until 1922.

• Basketball was invented by Canadian clergyman James Naismith in 1891, and was being played widely in YMCAs in 1900, but didn’t become an American pastime until the late 1920s.

Question 3:

What was the population of Philadelphia in 1900?

A: 20,231B: 653,760

C: 1,293,697D: 45,986,290

C- 1,293,697

In 1903, Philadelphia was the third largest city after New York and Chicago.

Question 4:

Who was the president of the United States in 1901?

A: Andrew JacksonB: Theodore Roosevelt

C: John F. KennedyD: Barrack Obama

Even though, as we’ll learn,

Teddy Roosevelt wasn’t responsive to demands for a change in child labor laws, he did help found the national parks service, and is remembered as a great American president

B-Theodore Roosevelt

A Presidential Side Note:They even put his face on Mount Rushmore

Question #5

What was the average life expectancy of a person living in Philadelphia at the turn of the 20th Century

(i.e. the beginning of the 1900s)?

A: 32B: 45C: 58

D: 127

B: 45 Years

Question # 6:

In 1900 what fuel did the average person in Kensington use to heat their home?

A: CoalB: ElectricityC: Nuclear

D: Gas

A:Coal Coal came from mines in rural Pennsylvania. It was used to heat homes, but also to power the steam engines in the factories and the trains that transported it.

Question #7:

What was one of the side effects of burning so much coal?

A: PollutionB: Lung Disease

C: Bad Indoor Air QualityD: All of the Above

D: All of the Above

From so much coal combustion, the amount of air pollution outside and in people’s homes and workplaces was much higher at the turn of the century. This led to higher incidences of lung disease, such as tuberculosis.

Question # 8

What was another health issue that caused people to live shorter lives in at

the turn of the 20th Century?

A: Poor Sanitation and Drinking Water.B: Airplane Accidents

C: BordomD: Too much fun.

A-Poor Sanitation and Drinking Water

Both sewage and industrial waste flowed into the Delaware, which was also the primary source of drinking water. Water filtration didn’t begin till

1912. Water-bourn illnesses like Typhoid and Cholera were common.

Cholera Side Note:Cholera is a disease that causes massive dehydration. It can be fatal. It is still a huge problem in developing countries with bad

drinking water.

Question # 9

As we know, many people worked in factories in Kensington. How many hours a day did a typical factory

worker in 1903 work?

A: 4 hours a dayB: 6 hours a day

C: 11-12 hours a day D: 18-20 hours a day

C: 11-12 hours a day

People in factory jobs typically worked from

6am-6pm

Question # 10

How many days a week did the average worker work?

A: 4B: 5C: 6D: 7

C: 6 Days a week

Question # 11

How much did a male adult worker earn in 1903?

A: $7 a weekB: $32 a week

C: $127 a weekD: $320 a week

A: $7 a week

Question # 12

If an adult male worked 72 hours in a week, how

much would this be per

hour? Do the math!!

Answer: about 10 cents an hour.

Question # 13

$7 a week seems like so little money! How much money would $7 a week represent in today’s

economy?

A: $65.00B: $175.00C: $400.00D: $560.00

B: $175.00

Question # 14

How much did a female adult worker earn in 1903 working the same number of hours?

A: $3.00B: $4.00B: $7.00

C: $12.00

B: $4.oo a week – About $100.00 in today’s money.

Question # 15

How many hours a week did a child generally work in a factory work in 1900?

A:20-30 hours a weekB: 30-40 hours a weekC: 40- 50 hours a weekD: 60-75 hours a week

D: 60-75 hours a week – The same as an adult

Question # 16

How many hours a week did the average child worker go to school? You guess…

0 hours

The average child worker did not go to school, and typically never learned to read or write.

Question # 17

What was the average life expectancy of a child laborer at the turn of the 20th century

A: 5 yearsB: 21 yearsC: 28 yearsD: 45 yearsE: 65 years

C: 28 Years

Most factory kids in 1900 didn’t know

their grandparents or live ling enough

to be grandparents themselves.

Question # 18

How much did a child worker earn in 1903 working the same hours as an adult? You

guess…

Answer: $2 dollars a week!!

Congratulations to the winning team!!!- you each made in 30 minutes what it would take

an entire week for a 10 to 19 year old to make in a week. Of course, that’s slightly more than

half of minimum wage, today. But, adjusted for inflation, a child laborer earning that wage in today’s economy would be making about 75

cents an hour!